


Circles and Ciphers

by isoscelesfish



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Cipher doesn't Know How to Dad, Demon Bill Cipher, Demon Dipper Pines, Demonic Family, Dipper Pines Is A Literal Pine Tree, Dipper Pines is a Baby Demon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Gen, No Sex, Platonic Relationships, Poisoning, Reincarnation, Temporary Character Death, The Nightmare Realm (Gravity Falls), Triangle Bill Cipher, Will Cipher is Bill's Twin, mild body horror, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-15 02:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17520686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isoscelesfish/pseuds/isoscelesfish
Summary: Dipper Pines never thought death would be pleasant, but he had hoped it would be a little more exciting. He wasn't even being murdered. If anything, Lazy Susan's niece would be charged with involuntary manslaughter because Dipper was pretty sure the pie he'd eaten had been meant for Jeff's gnome colony. So, here he was on the floor of a cheap motel, laughing at the irony as his organs began to fail. Mason 'Dipper' Pines survived three world-ending events only to die choking on blood and poisoned cherry pie.That unremarkable death proved to be his soul's final incarnation. As his body shut down, every single 'Dipper' in the multiverse met a swift, untimely demise, and the scattered pieces of his soul fled home to their core. The next time Dipper opened his eye, he was in the Nightmare Realm, and he wasn't human anymore.





	1. The Final Death of Dipper Pines

Dipper never thought his death would be so...ordinary. After all, he’d been walking the fine line between adventure and insanity for almost two decades. With Mabel’s charm and Dipper’s adorkable nerdiness and obvious love for the supernatural, The Mystery Twin Adventures had been a hit on YouTube. Nobody believed the content was real, but Dipper smiled every time he read a comment about the impossible special effects. Unfortunately for Dipper’s wallet, their channel had been put on semi-permanent hiatus after Mabel developed a case of imminent motherhood. He didn’t blame her for settling down, but it really fucked with his plans. This wasn’t the kind of job he could do alone, and he couldn’t trust that a new hire would take supernatural threats seriously.

With no obvious path forward, the leftover twin stewed in his van for almost a week before making his usual pilgrimage to Gravity Falls. He wasn't there for the town. It had changed too much, and most of his friends were long gone. No, he wanted the woods. He wanted to stand at the edge of one particular clearing and yell at the petrified corpse of a demonic triangle. Sometimes he even threw rocks and let the gnomes keep score. Stupid? Yes. Cathartic? Also yes. 

Dipper hated it when lifetime milestones smacked him across the face. Now, even his twin wanted him to settle down and retire from everything he loved. Mabel would never come out and say it, but she told him she was pregnant seconds before quitting the show. She didn't want him to find a replacement. She was done with monsters and mysteries, and of course, even now, she blindly assumed he would follow her lead. 

 _CRACK!_ ―"Good shot! 50 points, right on the pupil!"

It wasn't fair, and Dipper was beyond pissed that anyone thought they could dictate his life.

 _CRACK!_ ―"10 points, off the top hat!"

Sometimes, he wanted to say 'fuck it all to hell' and conjure another horde of zombies.

 _WHOOSH!_ ―"No joy! Straight past the arm!"

Sometimes, he wished Bill would come back.

Another three hours and 600 points later, Dipper thanked Jeff and drove back to his motel. After several weeks and 73 different lists, he started a side channel. It was less an adventure blog, and more like a video supplement to his journals. He filmed harmless creatures and a few intelligent creatures who gave their consent. It worked pretty well. His fans loved when he interviewed “real specimens” out in the wild. The show was safe and wholesome and somehow he still managed to die.

Dipper lay sprawled on his motel floor, surrounded by shards of shattered china and globs of displaced cherry filling. His entire body shook with violent tremors, desperately trying to purge whatever gods awful poison Lazy Susan’s niece had put in that slice of pie. The overhead lights seemed to vibrate as Dipper’s heart seized. His lungs hitched on their final breath, and gradually, his vision began to fade.

Mason 'Dipper' Pines, savior of Gravity Falls, slain by a slice of pie. It was so funny he could almost hear Bill laugh...

“Oh, man, I did not see that coming. Good death, Pine Tree. Solid nine out of ten.” Bill said, lounging three inches above a gold sofa. His single eye was fixed on a screen that clearly showed a detailed image of Dipper’s cooling corpse. “I can’t wait until Shooting Star hears the news; her eyes are going to shrivel up like raisins.”

Dipper blinked, scrunching up his face in confusion. He was obviously in some kind of media room, but everything felt...off. He felt shorter than he should be, and when he looked down, all he saw was a kind of pillar. There were others stationed around the circular room, each marble slab topped with a colored globe of light. Squinting at the one directly across from him, he saw a purple sphere marked with a single bleeding heart. Wait. His eyes flicked one spot to the left, recognizing the familiar shape of a shooting star.

Shit. Oh, shit. He was dead, and this was some twisted corner of hell. Spinning around, he tried to take a better look at himself, but the minute he moved, something popped, and he lurched forward in a blinding flash of light. Bill jumped, spinning around with a garbled curse. Blue fire sparked around black fists and Dipper zipped backward, crashing into several jars of mysterious organic matter. Both beings froze, staring at each other in complete silence.

"No..." Bill's fire fizzled out as he...backed away? “No, no, no, no! I didn't say you could do that, Pine Tree. You get back in that soul right now.”

“Bill?” Dipper asked, cringing at the sound of his own voice. It was all wrong―like a badly-tuned recording from when he was twelve.

“Wait, did I have too much time punch again? You’re like three seconds old. You shouldn’t be able to move, let alone talk.” Bill smacked the left side of his bowtie like that might erase Dipper from existence. When that failed, he turned to the door and screamed. “Will! WILL!”

Several doors slammed in the distance before a pale blue triangle burst into the room looking around as though searching for a dead body. When his eye landed on Dipper, he froze. “Bill...oh my GODS, Bill! I can’t believe you finally did it! He’s so adorable!”

Tears welled up in the triangle’s single eye and he rushed forward, reaching out to take Dipper in his hands. Yeah, nope. No way. He was not letting Bill’s freaky clone touch him. Dipper didn’t have legs and he didn’t have a clue how he was moving, but pure instinct had him crashing into the ceiling in the blink of an eye. Several of the overhead lights shattered.

“Oh… Oh, no, sweetie, it’s okay.” Will floated higher, raising his hands in what should be a comforting gesture. “I know you’re confused, but we’d never hurt you.”

“Speak for yourself” Bill muttered, eyeing the damage to his display room. “That little freak just ruined every single one of my plans. Plus he somehow broke my stuff? How the hell did he break my stuff? It’s MY stuff.”

“He’s...He’s not a freak, Bill.” Will frowned, reaching slowly for a confused Dipper and sighing when he vanished in a blink. This time, he landed with a poof on a swiftly manifested pillow that promptly fell to the floor.

“Seriously, what the hell is going on?” Dipper asked, looking from Will to Bill with a visible shudder. “Is this some kind of sick game? I mean, I’m obviously dead, but I don’t think I did anything to deserve this. Are you mad about the rocks? Or is this because of what happened in Utah, because those people were literal cannibals.”

“O-Oh...that’s...not normal. Bill, what did you do?” Will said.

“Nothing. I did nothing. My round’s been bright for eons, but they’re not supposed to pop without permission. And they sure as hell aren’t supposed to be like this. Pine Tree, are you the one that just choked on poisoned pie?”

“Y-yeah.” He said cautiously. “Stupid fucking way to die. Mabel’s going to animate my corpse so she can kill me all over again.”

Bill snickered while his double gasped in apparent shock. “Nah. She’s just gonna cry every night for like three years. That always happens when you die first. Or at least it did. Damn, it’s going to be weird working with only one set of twins.”

“Wait...what?”

“You popped your bubble, dumbass. You’re not human anymore. I mean, look at you.” A mirror manifested in front of Dipper, and his single eye widened with shock and horror. He...he was a tree. A gods damned cookie-cutter shape that looked disturbingly like...Bill.

“Holy fucking hell, Bill!” His voice rose an octave as he started to vibrate with sheer panic. “What did you _do_ _!?”_ Three more lights shattered and a box of bloody legos crashed to the floor.

“Stop wrecking my shit!” Bill glared, conjured up an oversized margarita, and dumped it in his eye with the practiced motion of a drunken frat-boy. “I swear, if you break one more thing, I’ll leave you on Odd’s doorstep.”

“Never!” Will hissed. “You are keeping this child, Bill Cipher, or I will move to the embassy with him and leave you with every single scrap of Tad’s pointless paperwork.”

“Would you stop calling me a child!?”

“Sure, sweetie. Just come down and I’ll get you some nice energy from Bill's garden.” Will said in a voice that sounded like he was trying to soothe a skittish cat.

“No!” Dipper didn’t have any limbs at the moment, so he kind of jumped over the mirror to stare Bill in the eye. “Bill, I’m not kidding. What did you do to me?”

“Uh-uh. Don’t blame me, kid. This is your mess.”

“Well, **OBVIOUSLY** it has something to do with **YOU**.” Dipper’s eye flashed red, his tree bleeding black as it dripped with inky tar. If he wasn’t the size of a cookie, the display might have looked intimidating instead of adorable. Bill’s eye twitched and an odd keening sound came from his twin.

“Honey…” Will said after a few beats of tense silence. “Bill’s… Bill’s your Dad.”

“Sorry.” Dipper blinked. “I think my audio glitched. What did you just say?”

“He’s your Dad. I’m your Uncle. We’re...we’re family.”

“Yeeeah. Okay.” Dipper said, slowly fading back to teal as he glanced around for a door. “I’m just gonna…”

The second he moved, a padded baseball glove appeared in his path and Bill swatted a black palm on Dipper’s back, holding him in place. “No way, Pine Tree. One room is bad enough. Will, make the kid a nursery or something, I need to drown myself in booze before I start dealing with this disaster.”

Dipper froze the second Bill’s palm hit his back. He should feel trapped and terrified, but despite the triangle's harsh words, his touch was almost...gentle. The contact sent a strange buzz of warmth across the little tree's surface, and as the glove passed to his self-proclaimed uncle, Dipper felt his eye begin to droop with exhaustion.


	2. New Life in the Nightmare Realm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper meets Uncle Will in a more casual setting and has a surprisingly emotional heart to heart chat about his feelings. Will and Bill discuss Dipper's abilities and Bill broods about his sudden foray into fatherhood.

It took Dipper a minute to wake up. His mind felt fuzzy, his body felt warm, and for some reason, everything was blue―the ceiling, the walls, the triangle staring down at him. All blue. A distant corner of Dipper's mind told him he should be panicking, but he was wrapped in a blanket and Will was carrying him around like a...like a newborn. Holy fuck, what was happening? His mind finally jolted into gear, but he still felt disturbingly warm, tingly, and...safe? He felt safe. Bill Cipher’s off-brand clone was cradling him in a blanket and he felt safe.

“No, sweetie. It’s okay. You don’t have to panic.” Will said in a soft, even voice. “I watched your last lifetime while you were sleeping, and I get why this situation is bothering you. My brother’s been trying to open a door to the physical realm for a very long time, and he’s starting to get...frustrated.”

The blue triangle sighed, floating to a star-speckled rocking chair and dropping down onto the seat. As the triangle moved, every bit of Dipper’s energy seemed to calm into smooth orderly waves, smothering all his panic and fear. “From what I understand, he’s been experimenting with his round for almost 2000 cycles. With that much stress, something was bound to break. I’m just surprised it took this long.”

“2000 cycles?” Dipper blinked lazily, watching Bill’s twin nod in confirmation.

“2000 lifetimes in 2000 new bodies. I’m not sure how many times Bill gathered his round in hot spots like Gravity Falls, but I know he’s come close to opening a door at least thirty times. He likes to keep trophies in the viewing room where you, uh, woke up.”

“That doesn’t make sense. We...we erased him from my Great Uncle’s mind when I was twelve. I mean, I had my suspicions when Stan got his memories back, but we never… I never saw Bill again, and I’ve been throwing rocks at his corpse for decades. I even joked about it in my stupid novel.” Something like tears itched at the corners of his eye and Dipper squeezed it shut, hating the raw emotions that clawed at his core. “He can’t just be...fine.”

“You missed him,” Will said in a paper-thin whisper.

“I did not!” A sob caught in his words and Dipper stopped, taking a long mental breath. “I didn’t miss the awful things he did or his stupid plans for world domination. I missed… I missed the thrill I got from trying to fight him. I saw so much weird shit during my life, but freaking eldritch horrors couldn’t measure up to that summer in Gravity Falls, I mean… Fuck, why am I talking to you? Did you drug me? I never even talk to Mabel about this shit.”

Will sighed. “I didn’t drug you. It’s just... I’m an emotional amplifier, and I’m sorry, but it ’s _really_ hard to control. I’d get someone else to take care of you, but I doubt you want Bill, and we can’t trust anyone else right now. Bill having a kid is going to be a huge deal, even without the added issue of your human memories. When word gets out, you’re going to get a lot of attention from a lot of beings, and you’re going to _hate_ it. Most new demons can’t even talk until the end of their first decade, so at best, you’re looking at endless baby talk and casual edge pinching.”

Dipper shivered, subconsciously projecting snippets of memories on his surface. Aunt Jolene and her chubby pinching fingers, dancing in front of his mother’s knitting club, humiliating himself in a haunted convenience store, and then again after losing a bet in college. His voice lowered to a whisper as he hissed, “Never again...”

Will put a hand over his eye and looked away with a stifled snort. “I’m-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! That was just...I can’t…” He gasped, shivering with suppressed mirth.

“No!” Dipper’s edges flushed pink, a few more tears sparking against his surface. He made a half-hearted effort to wiggle out of the blanket, but it just made him even more exhausted, and he wanted to scream. “I’m an eye in a tree! I’m not cute!”

“Dipper, I’m sorry, but you are _so adorable_.” The triangle’s large eye looked wistfully down at the bundle in his arms. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but you just did Bill’s image projection thing and I think my core almost shattered. Oh, gods, when you burned red earlier? I really hope your dad was recording that. I’ve never seen a little shape get so mad.”

“Ugh!” Dipper squirmed, wishing he had arms so he could do something, anything about the shame burning at his edges. “I’m not a fucking infant.”

The rocking chair came to an abrupt stop, and all the levity fled from Will’s expression. “Dipper, sweetheart, we have to talk about that. I know you feel like an adult. I saw your life. You were fearless and intelligent, and you died young. You can still be Dipper Pines if that’s what you want, but even though your mind has decades of human experience, your core is barely twelve hours old, and it's extremely fragile."

Will paused, glow dimming slightly as he tapped his finger on the arm of the rocking chair. "I'll...try not to treat you like a baby, but you have to work with me because we don't know how much stress your core can handle. If you keep pushing yourself the way you did in the viewing room..." The triangle shuddered, his eye glistening with tears, "You might shatter, and I..." Will's voice became the frailest whisper, barely audible over the ticking clock and the low rumble of bass from some distant corner of Bill's home. "I know it's hard to believe, but Bill is terrified of losing you. I thought he kept his round locked out of spite, but when he screamed for me, I finally caught his emotions. He loves you, Dipper. We both love you, so please don't be stupid." 

“Oh.” Dipper blinked, surprised to find tears simmering in his eye. His core was buzzing with five or six different emotions, and he couldn’t even think about Bill right now. The paranoid part of his mind still thought this must be some elaborate scheme to torment his eternal soul, but ignoring the impossibility of that monster giving a crap, the less insane bits of Will’s statement made sense. He already felt weak and irritable from a few tears and a conversation, and he didn’t want to die twice in one day. “Okay. I guess I’ll be careful, but I can’t lay around and nap forever. I need to check on Mabel.”

“Mabel? Oh, Shooting Star. Well, I doubt Bill wants you in the viewing room right now, but the time progression in that dimension is pretty slow. She won’t shrivel up and die while you eat. Speaking of which, we need to figure out what you need. Normally, newborns soak in an energy bath until their eye opens, but if you can open your mouth, you might be able to jump right to shards.”

“I have a mouth?” Dipper’s eye scrunched up.

“Well, yeah.” Will laughed, lifting off the chair and moving over to a table that held several jars of what looked like glitter water and colorful glass. “Almost everyone in our family has a compound system. Your eye processes audio, visual, and olfactory input, but to ingest food, you kind of have to...switch stations? Sorry, I’m not very familiar with the physical dimensions.”

“Oh, right.” A few more images appeared on the tree’s surface. Bill downing a margarita in the viewing room and a clearly possessed human Dipper pouring Pitt Cola in his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve seen Bill dump shit in his eye. I still think he’s the reason I ended up with glasses.”

Will chuckled, setting Dipper down on a cushion while he conjured a glass bowl and filled it with the sparkly liquid. A sharp pang of loss hit Dipper as he stared at the swirling energy bath. The rainbow sparkles reflected across the table, and he could almost see his sister mixing in plastic dinosaurs.

“I-I think I’m okay with a bath.” He sniffed, tears flowing openly, but he didn’t even care. This was grief, and grief wasn’t something you could bottle up or repress. He thought about asking Will to add Mabel’s signature ingredient, but it wouldn’t be the same. The blue demon smiled, creating a few floating orbs over the bowl. They looked kind of like the bubbles from weirdmageddon, but instead of nightmares, these held memories. Dipper barely noticed when he hit the water, even though it buzzed pleasantly around his shape. The memories were all about...Bill. He saw two tiny triangles zipping around a grumpy square, Bill conjuring sweet dreams in the dark for a brother who was too kind to do what his mother wanted, the joy in Bill’s eye when a small light emblazoned with a pine tree formed in his hands, two identical human boys walking through the woods in a place that looked suspiciously like Gravity Falls.

“Bill got a few fragmented memories from our mother when she died.” Will tapped the last bubble, watching it spin with a soft look in his eye. “This one’s not very long, but it proves we lived in the physical world―that we were human, even if we can’t remember.” He sighed, watching the two boys float on the surface of a glassy lake. “I know this change is going to be hard for you, but...I’m glad you get to remember how it felt to really live moments like this.”

Dipper’s eye flicked from the memory to the blue demon, and for a moment, his core felt like a ball of melting jello. His emotions were doing that thing again. There were too many, and he couldn’t look too closely or they’d all start to hurt. He missed Mabel so much, but he also really wanted to know the happy blonde boy who clearly loved his twin brother. How could that kid be the same monster that chased his family through the twisting corridors of a black pyramid?

His eye caught on the memory with the glowing pine tree symbol. In the sphere, Will came up behind Bill and gave him a hug, laughing as Bill boasted about how his first soul was way better than Tad’s. After all, it had _two_ triangles on _top_ of a square. They talked about what a great human Pine Tree would be, the adventures he’d have, the dimensions his shards would visit, and Dipper couldn’t take it anymore. He dunked himself into the sparkly bath and closed his eye so Will wouldn’t know how hard he was sobbing. 

He had to contact his sister. If all this was real, it meant he wouldn’t exist in Mabel’s next life, and even if he got Bill to pop her bubble, she was almost guaranteed to be a different person. He wanted to see his Mabel if only to say goodbye forever.

* * *

Dipper was asleep by the time the bubbles faded. Will watched him carefully, adding an extra dose of energy so the little tree wouldn't wake up too soon. When he was sure everything was in order, he levitated the bowl and let it follow him out of the hastily conjured nursery. Bill was still in the viewing room, staring up at the shattered lights as though they had done him a personal wrong. He glanced over, narrowing his eye at his sleeping son before speaking.

“This is ridiculous. Look...” He hissed, flicking a hand up at the lights in a familiar gesture. “I can’t fix them. I can’t fix _any_ of the shit he broke. I had to physically pick up 200 bloody legos and put them in a new box. Not to mention,” Bill held up a cracked jar that was leaking an ominous looking fluid, “the innards from my first physical form are literally starting to decay!”

Will frowned, moving closer to Bill and all but shoving the bowl in his arms. “I’ll check the lights and sweep the floor. You will watch Dipper and confront whatever emotions you think you're hiding. He should be out for a few hours, so you have plenty of time to brood, but if he wakes up, you better be nice or I'll watch every romantic movie Kryptos has on his network and bleed love all over your pyramid. You might also want to apologize for like...literally everything.” Will flicked bill’s top point, popped into his human form, and promptly turned away to conjure a broom and pan.

"You wouldn't dare..." Bill muttered for the sake of appearances, but for once, he wasn't in the mood for conflict. Rubbing his point, Bill stared at the bowl, watching Pine Tree shimmer as his shape absorbed the liquid energy. Fate was so unfair. Of all the incarnations in the multiverse, why did _this_  version of Pine Tree decide to break his mother's law? Carefully moving out of the room, Bill took one last glance back at the screen. Bleeding Heart was in the motel room, taking photos with a grim expression while two men in weird suits waited to remove Pine Tree’s last human shell. None of this made sense. If this ascension had been unavoidable, he should have seen it coming. The Sight didn’t give him full precognition in the void realms, but it usually gave him a hint. If this had something to do with Dipper’s aspect, the kid was going to be a literal nightmare.

Bill finally reached his quarters, cringing as a burst of laughter and demonic shrieks came from down in the lounge. Swiftly closing his door, the yellow demon set the bowl down next to his bed. If he were ruthlessly logical, he'd kill the kid and forget he ever existed. That's what _she_ would have done. Bill paced the length of his room, conjuring random objects to mess with as his mind worked to calculate endless possibilities and probabilities. His Sight gave him a few likely futures, but the kid’s actions weren’t as clear as they should be. It was like Pine Tree had been designed to counter his influence, even though he had literally formed from Bill’s own energy.

He'd been afraid of this―afraid of so many things if he could be honest with himself, which he couldn't. Logic. Facts. His mother hated him before he was ever created. He had been made in an act of pure hubris, proof that chaos could be constrained with rules and order. He knew Mother Circle had tampered with him specifically, weighing him down with twice the energy tax she imposed on her 'proper' children. It was also possible she had messed with his round. A rubix cube cracked into fragments as his mind ran through the usual possibilities. That was the one thing he could never predict, apart from his own future. When he looked at his round, he could see every last detail about their souls, but he couldn't see what they would do once they ascended to the void. 

It was infuriating because they were **HIS**. Mother Circle had no right to touch them, but even if she had, he couldn't go back to kill her again. Unless he finally managed to find Time Baby's hideaway―but, no, that wasn't important. Pine Tree. This was about Pine Tree. With a sigh, he finally let himself remember, opening one of many forbidden doors in his mindscape. And, there it was―the first time he'd touched the kid's soul. It wasn't his first time seeing an unripe soul, but this one was **HIS** , and he was free to explore every possibility in every incarnation. Pine Tree lived so many good lives, and Will always seemed to know when to give the kid a leg up. Damn, but they'd been so happy before...that other thing he didn't think about. 

Bill stopped, tossing his eighteenth rubix cube into the void. He couldn’t―wouldn't kill the boy, no matter what his mother might have done to him. Reaching that one conclusion, the yellow demon sat down on the bed, watching his little tree bob up and down. He could see the subtle hint of tears mixed in with the energy bath, and those were probably his fault, too. Conjuring up his own memories, Bill watched this version of Pine Tree a second time, noticing the fear and rage in his eyes as he confronted a nightmare made by his own father. Bill flopped back on the gold duvet, staring up at nothing. Pine Tree wasn’t supposed to remember any of it, and fuck, it was actually kind of embarrassing. Getting trapped in Gravity Falls because he couldn't figure out that stupid equation? Yeesh. Not to mention the whole twin-swap gambit. Bill might as well have shot himself in the face. He really should remember he couldn't access his Sight when he had a physical form.

He didn't always keep up with his pawns once his part in the game was over. Old Sixer was a snoozefest when he wasn't hopped up on coffee and nightmares, but Pine Tree and Shooting Star had done pretty well. They managed to stop one of Odd's creatures from turning all of humanity into brainless cephalopods, and Pine Tree had stopped a zombie outbreak he himself had caused―again. There was the thing with the cannibals, and damn if he didn't admire that brutality. No wonder the kid thought he was headed for the pits. Finishing up with the fateful pie incident, Bill skimmed through Dipper's time with Will and tried not to feel too jealous.

Wait. Hold up. Bill backed the record up and listened more carefully.

_"That doesn’t make sense. We...we erased him from my Great Uncle’s mind when I was twelve. I mean, I had my suspicions when Stan got his memories back, but we never… I never saw Bill again, and I’ve been throwing rocks at his corpse for decades. I even joked about it in my stupid novel."_

What? Another record popped up, this one a view from the petrified eye of his physical form, and sure enough, one year after he'd been erased from their dimension, there was Pine Tree. At nearly fourteen, he was still just as scrawny and awkward as ever, and he stood at the edge of the treeline, glaring at the petrified demon with a little spite and a lot of disappointment. 

 _"I know you're in there. I know you're not dead you...Pythagorean Nightmare."_ Ohhh, someone's taking geometry. _"_ _I knew something was wrong the instant Grunkle Stan got his memories back, and I've been researching exactly how to defeat you, so I guess you were smart to stay away this year, but I'll be back. Mabel won't. She says it's boring here, but she never really liked the woods. Anyway, you suck."_

 _CRACK!_ The rock hit Bill's effigy right on the eye, and for a second Pine Tree's entire body seemed to flicker.

Oh. Oh, you little shit. That was is. It had to be. Bill searched forward to the next encounter and yeah, there was Pine Tree, and he was just a tad blurry around the edges. By the fourth time he visited, he was just a hazy blur, and after that...nothing. He saw the rocks and heard the gnomes, but he got nothing from his willful spawn. Cheeky little bastard. He asked about the rocks and I didn't even know. What else had Bill missed in this kid's life? And why didn't this glitch affect all his eyes? 

It had to be about his petrified physical form, right? No matter how many rocks it took, the sturdy adonis never chipped or broke. If another soul went and threw rocks at him, would they gain some kind of benefit? It would be an interesting experiment now that his entire dimensional rift plan was **TOAST** ―at least until Pine Tree decided to play ball. Bill clapped his hands, forcing himself out of his own head and back to what passed for reality. He shut and locked all the right doors, filed away his new plans, and simply gazed down at Dipper Pines, tentatively sketching out possibilities for their future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm really liking Assertive Mom Will. (Timid Weepy Will is for squares.) Also, thank you all for the comments and kudos! This chapter is a lot longer than the first one, so I hope you enjoy. As always, don't hesitate to ask questions or request things you'd like to see. 
> 
> I've mentioned a few side characters in passing now, one of which is fannon Tad, who is Bill's brother in this verse. There's also Odd and Mother Circle. Bill has a large and complicated family thanks to his mom REALLY liking how ROUND the number 10 is. Also, can you imagine having teeth behind your eye? Because that is legit canon material, and I love it. Do you think Bill can see while his mouth is open?


	3. The Heir and the Eternal Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper feels really squeamish about his mouth and can't get it to open. He loses his temper, Bill loses some make-believe hair, and Will has a rather intense emotional meltdown. Dipper is exposed during the confusion, and suddenly he's the crown prince of whatever Bill's ruling. With Will out of commission, Dipper winds up spending more time with Bill. Will comes back after Dipper falls asleep, and Bill actually isn't that bad at caring for his sibling.

Dipper was awake and alone in the nursery. He was on a plush bed that was definitely not a crib because he was a floating geometric shape, and Will really didn’t need to worry about him falling on the floor. Actually, everything in Bill’s house seemed superfluous, and Dipper got the feeling that at 98% of it wasn’t real. There were beds and chairs, but most demons floated and didn’t need to sleep unless their core had been severely overtaxed. Will apparently slept, though, so that was a mystery. Maybe Bill worked him so hard, he had to cycle ambient energy regularly. Speaking of mysteries, Dipper really wanted arms, hands, and writing implements so he could organize his thoughts into nice detailed lists.  

Not that he was bored or anything. Bill had a cable provider most humans would kill for. KryptoNet offered a nearly infinite number of shows and movies, most of which had multiple variations with alternate scripts and casts. Watching Ducktective with thirteen different twists and seven different lead ducks was a real trip. He also found a version of ER where a young Stanley Pines played the hot surgeon. He wasn’t even touching the porn. It was enough just knowing the tab was there. He did NOT want to know what demons found sexy. What if it was something really bizarre like wheat and wheat by-products?

There was a charge, of course, though he didn’t really understand the currency. Were five ‘bills’ equivalent to five dollars, or five tons of solid gold? Another question for nonexistent list number thirty-three, provisionally titled: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Nightmare Realm.’

What he really wanted to do was see Mabel. He could probably use Bill’s stupid TV, but that would just show her crying over worm food. He wanted to really talk to his sister, and that probably required a ton of energy, but for some reason, his stupid mouth refused to cooperate. It wasn’t instinctive like opening his eye. Humans didn’t have gross compound organs, and every time he tried to picture his eye twisting into a gaping maw, he felt like he wanted to puke. Sidenote: demons can’t puke. Dipper tried different ways to trick his mouth open, but he just ended up cranky, exhausted, and starving.

It was at the end of one of these sessions that Bill finally decided to visit. To make matters worse, he was dressed up as a human. For some reason, that _really_ pissed Dipper off. Here he was, trying to make peace with the fact that he somehow had to manage this disgusting convertible sensory organ, and this asshole walks in flaunting a deluxe two-eyed, mouth-having human package. Dipper was so pissed, he didn’t even realize he was burning Bill until the demon was cursing out in the hallway.

“I didn’t _do_ anything!” The tall man said, presumably talking to Will. “That little shit took one look at me and tried to burn my face off!”

“Dipper,” Will peeked in, also in human form, but popping back to normal after gauging his nephew’s reaction. “Based on your smoldering rage, I take it you really did set Bill’s face on fire? Might I ask why?”

Dipper grumbled under his breath, turning an odd shade as his shape tried to flush pink and black at the same time. “He was human and I **REALLY** wanted to punch his stupid mouth.”

Bill blinked, brow furrowing as he looked up from the mirror he’d summoned to check for burn damage. His cheek was healing, thank gods, but it was slower than usual, and the ash refused to budge from his yellow suit jacket. “That’s it? That’s the reason? You, Dipper Pines, all around good guy and three-time savior of humanity, tried to burn my face off...because I showed up with a face?”

“ **YES!** ” Dipper screamed. He couldn’t help it. Will was there, and the boost to his already fraying temper burned his filter to ash right along with Bill’s stupid golden hair.

“Neat!” Bill gave his son an inhumanly wide grin and popped back into triangle form. He still had a smudge on his yellow surface, and for some reason that made Dipper extremely happy. “That was a nice blast. I’m proud of you, kid.”

A bowl slammed down on a table that definitely hadn’t been there a second ago, and two eyes moved to one very angry uncle. “What your father means is that you are in **BIG** trouble Dipper Pines. That was the single most reckless use of energy I have ever seen! You could have **DIED** and by the time I’m done, you will **WISH YOU WERE DEAD.** But you need to recharge before I can drown you in endless torment, so get ready for another nap.”

“ **NO!** ” Dipper yelled, not because he didn’t want a nap―he did. He also wanted to yell. Bill, who was watching his brother with something like horror, managed to scoop the little tree up seconds before Will’s bomb hit. A writhing mass of rage, jealousy, grief, sorrow, bliss, familial love, bitter hatred, and heart-wrenching anguish slammed down on the room, drowning the entire Fearamid in a maddening kaleidoscope of conflicting emotions. Bill doubled over, clutching his son to his bowtie as they hit the floor, shuddering at ground zero of a class-three emotional meltdown.

Shouts sounded in the hall, and a few minutes later, Xanthar, the only Henchmaniac who spawned without emotions, managed to drag his boss out of the room and down to the lounge. Even here, party guests and castle dwellers were doubled over and shaking, so Bill decided he could forgive them for failing to cower properly. He certainly wasn’t shaking anymore. He was perfectly fine. Bill had an excellent tolerance for weird emotional disturbances. Pine Tree, though…

“Pine Tree?” He prompted, looking down at the little shape, who looked oddly grey. He was vibrating, so he was definitely alive, but he didn’t look healthy. “Pine Tree! Snap out of it!”

Directing raw energy to his hands, he made an old fashioned, very condensed energy bath. It was just a sphere of raw power, but it was Bill’s, and it was potent. The little demon’s edges started to shimmer, and in a blink, his tiny eye twisted into a fanged mouth, which opened wide and swallowed the entire pool. The moment he finished, Dipper fell over in complete and utter exhaustion, and Bill finally realized where they were.

“Uhhh. Great party, guys! Keep it going.” They’d seen the kid, but explaining things to the muscle wasn’t his job. Pyronica would track him down eventually, and she’d fill the other idiots in. It would be one thing if the Maniac Lounge was exclusive, but torturing the same group of friends over and over got boring really fast. There were peons here―little sixth and seventh generation worms with so little power, they barely ranked above eyebats. They were only good for two things: torture and gossip, and boy were they gonna get both today.

He could run a purge, of course, but that would imply he had something to hide, and Bill Cipher didn’t need to hide such a promising heir. Let the rats scuttle home to their starving nests. He didn’t care. Bill positively beamed with manic glee as he carried his son up to his throne, conjured a raised, miniature duplicate to its right, and set the sleeping child down to rest.

* * *

The good news: he finally opened his mouth. The bad news: Will was sobbing. Dipper couldn’t see or hear his uncle, but what else could be causing the deep melancholy that plagued Bill’s Fearamid? Yeah, Bill lived in the same stupid structure with the same stupid name. Dipper had been chased through this awful place all through his childhood nightmares, and now he got to repeat the experience as the rightful heir to the throne. Of course, Bill had to be a king. Nobody but a monarch could be so annoying and arrogant.

“Open wide, sapling!” Bill sang, shoving a glowing violet shard at his son’s eye. Dipper, who was still stuck with an infuriating lack of arms, was forced to either obey Bill or disobey Will’s ban on attempted patricide. The little demon compromised by trying to bite off a finger. It was a small rebellion, and the effort earned him nothing but a giggle. “Fine, I’ll stop. It’s not my fault you look cute when you eat. Oh, wait, it is. Sorry, I cursed you with good looks and charming personality.” Bill moved to pinch Dipper’s edge, and the little tree lost his last ounce of chill, his shape dripping tar-black with a burning red eye and bright ruby flames.

**“TOUCH MY EDGE AND LOSE A HAND.”**

A collective gasp came from the surrounding partygoers, and Dipper immediately faded back to teal, sinking down on the pillow with a dower look on his surface. Bill snickered, lifting the boy and petting his edge gently. Dipper would feel more soothed if he didn’t know Bill was doing it because he'd just demanded the opposite. He set himself on fire, just because he knew it would sting. “You suck.”

“Back at you, little tree.” Bill’s voice didn’t hold a hint of malice. With a gesture, he manifested an entire pile of shards and held them out for Dipper. “Now, eat your veggies, so we can get to the fun stuff―like arms.”

“I want Will back.” Dipper pouted, carefully lifting a blue shard with a tendril of energy.

“Nope. You broke Will, so now you have to put up with me.”

Dipper paused, chewing sullenly. He didn't really break Will, did he? Fear scraped at his core when, again, he couldn't find an answer. He remembered yelling and being frustrated, but his actual words were lost in this howling red fog. What the hell had happened? There was definitely burning, which accounted for his new grasp of pyrokinesis, which was cool, but definitely not worth hurting Will. He never would have lashed out like that before. Heck, Dipper had dealt with at least twenty stalkers over the years (most of them Mabel's), but he was never the kind of guy who led with violence. He would resort to it if pushed, and yeah, he had some blood on his hands, but what happened with the fire was...new.

That was scary, especially since so many other things had changed. Was he changing? Sure, he was a different species, but mentally he was still the same idiot who ate a bad slice of pie...right? Dipper mused over the implications, crunching on an orange shard while Bill tossed barbed comments at random guests. Yeah. He was still Dipper. No matter how weird this got, he was the last Dipper Pines the world would ever know, and he refused to lose himself. Something was up with his emotional stability, but he'd find the problem eventually. Until then, he just had to read up on anger management and apologize to Will.

He wanted to find his missing uncle, but he still had trouble moving without destroying things, so he couldn't exactly search the Fearamid. The emotional bleed meant Will was alive, though, and Bill probably knew where he was. He didn't seem worried, so, for right now, Dipper would just have to endure this torture.

"Something on your mind, kid?" Bill swiped a red solo cup off one of many passing trays and promptly took a swig, smacking his 'lips' unnecessarily. Gross.

"Not really." Dipper said, continuing his policy of resolutely ignoring the party going on around them. The DJ was playing a pulsing dubstep track, but Bill obviously had some kind of audio buffer around his throne, because it easily faded into the background. "You know, if you're trying to sell me as some demonic baby genius, it would probably work better if you had my cooperation."

Bill hummed, looking down at the boy’s expression. “That almost sounds like you're asking for a deal, kid. Good instincts, but here’s an important tip. Promises and agreements are one thing, but deals are forever. If you seal a deal with another demon, consider it set in stone. It doesn’t matter if the situation changes or you lose your nerve, your core will force you to follow through. Kapeesh?”

“Y-yeah, no deals. Got it.” Dipper blinked up at the larger demon, surprised to find himself on the receiving end of actual, useful information. Gods, he wanted to write things down. “I wasn't really asking for one, though. I was saying I might be more cooperative if you told me what you wanted instead of this...manipulation bullshit."

"That's cute, Pine Tree, but I'm not going to coddle you." The yellow triangle finished his drink before immolating the empty cup. "If you're smart enough to figure out the game, you're smart enough to play. You already guessed what I want, so the next move is yours."

"Ugh, fine..." Dipper rolled his eye, swallowing the last shard in the pile. "In that case, if you want me to play your stupid game, I want free access to the viewing room so I can check on Mabel. I also want you to make sure Will's okay, but that's something you should do regardless.”

“Will's fine. He's pretty good at avoiding me when he's sulking, but he'll come crawling back eventually. As for the viewing room, I think we can work something out if you promise not to break anything.” Bill said, rubbing a finger along his son’s back. This time, it wasn’t a gesture born of spite.

* * *

It took a surprisingly long time for anyone important to visit the Fearamid, but everyone suspected Will’s misery was the cause, and Bill silently commended his brother for being useful. Dipper could mostly float freely now, even if he was pretty slow. Eager to abuse his new freedom, the little demon made a spot for himself in Bill’s viewing room, sitting on his old hat while he watched his family grieve.

They weren’t the only ones. Bill took great pleasure in flipping through all the dimensions his soul had been rooted in, laughing at the endless stream of sad family members and weeping Mabels. Some of them weren't even twelve yet. It was an important lesson though, and Dipper thought he understood. If he asked Bill to pop Mabel’s soul, no matter when he did it, countless versions of his sister would die. Was being together worth that kind of price? He honestly didn’t know. A good person would sacrifice their own happiness, but hadn't he always done that for Mabel? Even their show had revolved around her needs, so...maybe this decision should, too. Assuming he ever got to talk to her, he'd find out how much his sister needed a twin brother.

At the moment, his actual sister was doing okay, all things considered. It had been just over a month and a half back home, and Dipper’s funeral was long over. Surprisingly enough, Mabel and Pacifica were house hunting in Gravity Falls. However far along Mabel was in her pregnancy, she was definitely starting to show. He watched the happy couple snuggle up in Pacifica's car, Mabel giving a great big smile even though he could read the pain deep in her eyes. Dipper didn’t realize he was crying until the tears sparked against his hat. It was weird seeing the old design, and he felt a strange but comfortable draw to it, even though he hadn't worn it in decades.

“You should be able to see through the tree if you focus hard enough,” Bill said, shrinking his form down to Dipper’s size, and wiping the tears from his eye. “Your connection will never be as strong as mine, but if the mark has an eye, you'll get better reception.”

“I didn’t know you could change sizes,” Dipper muttered, pressing himself against the pine tree symbol.

“I can do lots of things, kid,” Bill said, growing just big enough to sit with Dipper, smoothing a comforting palm along his edge. “This is my world―my dream. I can be anything I want.”

“How about quiet…” Dipper mumbled, and it wasn't even a question because he was already half asleep with his makeshift security blanket. Bill smiled, flashing with silent laughter as he tucked his son in. There was a new branch forming on the kid's timeline, but it was still just a bit too fuzzy to interpret. Knowing Pine Tree, it probably had something to do with his sister.

Rubbing the bright surface of his son's back, Bill closed his eye, basking in the harmonious buzz that all demon parents shared with their offspring. It was a relic of shared energy, like calling to like, and it was extremely relaxing. Bill felt his tension ease, the paranoia in his psyche giving just an inch.

Bill’s new pet project was in his son’s old world, so he was perfectly happy to help the twins reunite. Unfortunately, he needed to find a new way in. The old route had been thoroughly erased, which was a tough rule to work around, but fourteen-year-old Pine Tree had courteously informed him that his great uncle’s memories had returned. The price hadn’t been paid. Fez finished his life with his memories intact, and that loophole should be just enough to squeeze through with a little help from the other side.

That was the problem though. He’d already played his game in this Gravity Falls. Nobody would open a door for him. Dipper was too young to be summoned, Will’s core was too messed up to do anything useful, and the Henchmaniacs needed a rift to cross worlds. That left...favors. Gross. He hated owing people, and he _really_ hated owing Odd, who was the only other demon who definitely had a way into that dimension. Bill shivered. He knew what that slimy horror was going to ask for, too, and he would rather avoid making that agreement.

Bill looked down at Pine Tree, watching the boy’s glow pulse in a slow, stabilizing rhythm. He could…talk about this. The plan didn’t involve anything that might conflict with the boy’s flagging moral code. Well, except perhaps Odd, but that was a means to an end, and there were others he could ask if it was too much for the kid to handle. For once he wasn’t cooking up some reality-bending scheme. He just wanted to figure out why a statue did a thing. That was something he could share.

A combination of warm affection and stale shame tried to stir in his core, and when he looked up, Will was floating in the doorway like the shadow of a kicked puppy. “Where the hell have you been hiding?”

The blue triangle shrugged, his glow barely visible in the dark hallway. Bill stood up, careful not to disturb the sleeping child. Resuming his normal size, he moved over to his twin, noting the glassy eye and faint flicker in his glow.

“Garden. Now.” Bill ordered, pulling Will down to the last level of the Fearamid, and opening a locked, yellow door. Beyond it, the void was blacker than the deepest night and filled with constellations of shining souls. Will started to shiver, popping over to his human guise despite his lack of energy. Bill swore, making sure the door was closed before matching his brother’s illusion. He sat the young man down on the nonexistent floor and held him close in a solid, grounding embrace.

Fuck. Bill exhaled, letting his own energy trickle into Will’s damaged core. They hadn’t been down here in almost a century, and every time his brother broke, he told himself it would never happen again. It _always_ happened again. For a fraction of a second, a memory stirred, black fingers binding law after law, forcing order, and demanding obedience. Bill’s form flickered, buzzing with static and a silent shriek. No. Stop. Breathe. His arms tightened, fingers curling in Will’s golden hair. Mother was dead. Will was safe. They were all safe. He had enough energy.

With a shuddering sob, Bill let a few dusty doors open in his mindscape, and Will’s hands finally rose to grip the back of his twin’s jacket. They sat there for a good few hours. Bill bleeding a constant stream of energy, while weaving a familiar forest in the dark void. The two brother’s walked together, acting out a memory of a memory like they had a thousand times before. In this gentle illusion, Bill’s garden held fragrant flowers, and he was always careful to only take the brightest blooms while they walked along a crooked creek, heading for a long-awaited lake.

“I’m sorry.” Will finally croaked, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stopped, looking out over the bright blue water.

Bill sat down on a checkered blanket and opened a basket. Pulling out two cans of Pitt Cola, he set them down and returned for a pair of sandwiches. “Extra avocado, hold the beef,” Bill waived the right-hand sandwich in his brother’s face. “It wasn’t your fault. Pine Tree was teething, and we misjudged the situation.”

Will snatched the sandwich with a huff and sat down on the blanket. “I could have killed him.” He sniffed, flinching as he bit into the sandwich. Will wiped his mouth, wishing the gesture would keep the waves of rage, terror, and frantic desperation out of his core. It didn’t help. It never did.

“You didn’t,” Bill stated, munching through his own sandwich, and digging into the basket for another. “Nobody got hurt. Dipper hasn’t even asked about the episode. He just knows you’re sad and wants you to come back. And, hey! The kid can actually eat now! He’ll stabilize in no time, and you won’t have to worry so much.” The older blonde popped the lid on his cola, guzzling it down as he looked pointedly at Will’s half-finished sandwich. “Eat it. You’re bone dry, and you know there’s a limit to how much I’m allowed to transfer.”

“I know…” Will said, and he did. With tears streaming down his face, he forced himself to chew misery and swallow terror. Ghosts wailed inside his core. He shivered, coughed, and gasped through poison clouds of violent despair, and yet somehow, the energy sustained him. Under the illusion, Will’s glow slowly brightened, his core cycling in an uneven, but sustainable rhythm.

“That’s good enough.” Bill took the last bite of sandwich from his brother’s trembling fingers and swallowed it whole. “I need to...readjust my focus. Would you mind checking on Pine Tree for me? He’s asleep in the viewing room.”

Will nodded, wiping his eyes and popping back to his demon form. The tranquil forest evaporated like the sweet dream it was, and the blue triangle was already stepping through a freestanding door, back into the eternal nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got way more emotional than I expected. Poor, sweet, precious demon child who can't do the one thing demons have to do. <3
> 
> EDIT: I reworked a bit in the middle because I realized Dipper really needed a bit of introspection.

**Author's Note:**

> This is me being an unproductive piece of crap because I should not be writing fic, but I'm doing it anyway. Billdip is my jam, and Demon Dipper is my bread, but platonic Dad Bill and Baby Demon Dipper is like pure marshmallow fluff and I need some of that right now. Dipper is still himself in this fic because I really don't like memory wipes, so get ready for an adult brain in a baby pine tree body. 
> 
> I'm sure Will or Bill will give Pine Tree the talk about where demon babies come from, so I won't say anything here, but if anyone has any questions or suggestions for cute scenes with the boys, leave a comment and I'll see what I can work in. Also, note: Regular updates will not happen due to my life being a wreck.


End file.
